AMD’s Radeon HD 5000-series cards are already considerably more power efficient than anything in Nvidia’s Fermi lineup, but PowerColor’s Go Green series of cards are engineered to consume even less electrical power than reference design-cards. This passively cooled Radeon HD 5750 (PowerColor part number AX5750 1GBD5-NS3DH, to be precise) draws all the power it needs from the PCI Express bus, so it doesn’t require a dedicated six-pin power cable. No fan means no noise.

The decision to refresh its line of Reader devices was probably an easy one for Sony. After all, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble recently stacked the decks in their favor by launching new, lower cost eBook readers, so sitting on the sidelines just wasn't an option, or at least not a very good one.

Sony gave its entire three-member Reader family a makeover, which includes the Pocket, Touch, and Daily editions. Each one has been retooled with an improved optical touchscreen, peppier page turns, and higher-contrast E-Ink Pearl displays, the same that is used in the new Kindle and Kindle DX.

Model numbers have changed, and so has some of the pricing. The Pocket Edition jumps from PRS-300 to PRS-350 and sells for $180, while the Touch Edition goes from PRS-600 to PRS-650 and comes priced at $230. Both are available now. The larger Daily Edition will ship sometime this fall for around $300.

Display maker Viewsonic on Tuesday officially let the world know about its upcoming ViewPad 7, which the company is billing as the world's first Android 2.2 (Froyo) tablet with phone functionality, multi-tasking, multiple cameras, and other goodies.

"We are proud to announce another world first at Viewsonic. 3G phone functionality combined with dual cameras gives the ability for use of Android apps to use augmented reality or video calling on the move with the benefit of an excellent 7-inch screen," says Derek Wright, European Product Marketing Manager. "The ViewPad 7 is aimed at users who require the 'always on' connectivity they are used to from a mobile phone with a more agreeable screen size for longer term use."

In addition to front and rear facing cameras, the ViewPad one-ups Apple's iPad with a microSD card slot with support for up to 32GB of storage. Other features include Wi-Fi, USB connectivity, assisted GPS, Bluetooth, text/mms messaging support,, and a G-sensor.

The latest word is that LG plans to show off an ultra-thin OLED display at the 2010 IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin next month.

The 31-inch display is said to measure just 2.9mm thin, making it the slimmest OLED around. Jumping on the 3D bandwagon, the new display will come capable of churning out three-dimensional visuals with its 600Hz refresh rate.

Other details are pretty much non-existent at this point, including cost, but don't expect it to be cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Combining OLED with 3D is like mixing gold with platinum. For a point of reference, LG sells a 15-inch OLED 2D TV for $2,500, so it's safe to say the upcoming 31-inch set will cost at least twice as much.

Samsung could end Verizon's tablet drought with its upcoming Galaxy Tab, according to tech blog Boy Genius Report. To underpin its claim, the blog has uploaded a screenshot of an internal system that quite clearly lists the Galaxy Tab among the Samsung products in the carriers inventory. The Android-based tablet will be among the many tablets different manufacturers are expected to showcase at IFA 2010 (Sept 3-8) in Berlin. But Samsung will officially introduce the tablet to the world a day before IFA gets underway.

Prior to flipping the power switch, nervous Nellies feared that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would spell doom for our home planet as it goes knocking protons into each other. One Hawaiian dude named Walter Wagner even took the concern to court by suing to have the project shut down. He failed, of course, but wasn't finished working the legal system.

An appellate judge for the United States District Court in Hawaii has again disappointed Wagner by denying his appeal, saying he failed to show "credible threat of harm." The judge also said that the U.S. doesn't control the Collider, so our legal system would be powerless to stop it anyway.

"The European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) proposed and constructed the Collider, albeit with some U.S. government support," Senior District Judge Helen Gillmor explained. "The U.S. government enjoys only observer status on the CERN council, and has no control over CERN or its operations. Accordingly, the alleged injury, destruction of the earth, is in no way attributable to the U.S. government's failure to draft an environmental impact statement."

Gillmor went on to say that even if the court ruled in favor of Wagner, the decision would have no impact on CERN or Collider operations, "and would not afford Wagner the relief he seeks."

So in other words, if the LHC does destroy the earth and all of mankind, Wagner will have to take his lawsuit international.

My NAS Box has a first name, it’s s-l-o-w

How do you spell slow? P-X-N-A-S-2, according to Plextor. It’s not a proud achievement, but this one-terabyte network-attached storage device is one of the slower devices we’ve ever hooked up to our network. Transferring files is slow. Accessing the Web-based user interface is slow. Formatting the drives to a new storage type is slow. Slow, slow, slow.

Our necks are still sore from the double-take we did when we saw Fujitsu announcing "external graphics" for its latest laptop, the Lifebook AH530 GFX. Could it be true that our enthusiast voices had finally been heard by a vendor with the balls to release a notebook with a presumably upgradeable external videocard?

Sorry Johnny, this isn't the innovative notebook you were looking for. What Fujitsu calls "external graphics," the rest of the world better recognizes as discrete graphics. In this case, it's an onboard Mobility Radeon HD550v graphics chip with a dedicated 1GB frame buffer. According to Notebookcheck.com, this mobile part comes clocked at 450MHz (core) and 600MHz (memory) with a serviceable (though not spectacular) 128-bit memory bus. Noteook Check says it's basically the same chip as the Mobility Radeon HD 4650, only a slower version.

Other specs include a 15.6-inch glossy LCD screen, optional Core i3, i5, or i7 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 500GB of hard drive space, optional Blu-ray (comes standard with a DVD writer), 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, three USB 2.0 ports, and VGA output.

No word yet on price, though Fujitsu says units will start shipping soon.

According to Bensen Lin, vice president and general manager of Garmin-Asus, his company will launch its Android-based Nuvifone A10 smartphone in Taiwan on September 10. Those who want to get a jump on other buyers can put in their pre-order now.

Android's Froyo build (Android 2.2) isn't in the cards for the Nuvifone A10, at least not initially, and will instead ship with Android 2.1. It will also come with a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen display, 512MB of RAM, a 5MP camera, Qualcomm 7227 processor clocked at 600MHz, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi, and other odds and ends. As with previous Garmin-Asus phones, the A10 will come heavily promoted for its built-in GPS functionality.